Tag: knitting

Finished Object – Houndstooth Handwarmers

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Several months ago, I set out to make a colorwork pattern for submission to a design call. I wanted to refresh myself on the technique, though, because it had been quite a while since I had done colorwork. So I turn to LoveCrafts and found the Houndstooth Handwarmers by Ellen Gill.

I had some mystery yarn in my stash box, and it managed to match the gauge, so I decided to use it. I’d say it’s size 2/ fingering weight yarn.

I used the two-handed method, contrast color (gray) in the left hand and main color in the right since I normally throw because I use a method in which I maneuver the left needle to do most of the work and doing everything with my left hand puts too much strain on my left wrist. Anyway, the two-hand method makes my floats super organized and nice on the back side.

Finished Object – Flirt Skirt

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I had some Lion Brand Mandala Yarn that I bought as an option for my Tunisian Tee test project that I decided to turn into a skirt. So I poked around on LoveCrafts and found the Flirt Skirt by Claire Jackson.

Turns out the colors matched my computer, and once I was into the body of the skirt it made a great shoulder warmer when I forgot my jacket at baseball practice.

Details:

Size: 36 inch waist, worked as written

Yarn: Lion Brand Mandala in Spirit, two balls alternated each row, 210 grams

This is a great “mindless” project once you get past the waistband and set up your markers for the increase rows. Definitely recommend this for a nice spring skirt. I have worn it several times already since I finished it.

Choosing Colors

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A tip for choosing colors, especially colors for stripes or other types of patterns, that I learned in either my color theory class or my first photoshop class: take a picture and desaturate it to black and white.

Five skeins of neon yarn on a light wooden table: blue, pink, green, magenta, and purple from left to right. A speckled black skein sit above them.
Black and white version of the photo above with five skeins of yarn lined up with a sixth, smaller skein above them. The five skeins of yarn are in order of medium, medium, light, dark, dark

A bit easier to do now than it was back then when it involved actually getting out a digital camera, taking a picture, importing it to photoshop, and then changing the color. And I acknowledge that I was lucky to be able to do that a bit over a decade ago. Imagine that same process with black and white film and having to either develop it or take it to Walgreens. Yeah, pretty sure no one would do that.

Five skeins of neon yarn on a light wooden table: blue, magenta, pink, purple, and magenta from left to right. A speckled black skein sit above them.
Black and white version of the photo above with five skeins of yarn lined up with a sixth, smaller skein above them. The five skeins of yarn are in order of dark, dark, medium, dark, light

I was able to make each of these pictures in a matter of seconds right on my phone, and it makes all the difference. This shows you which ones are similar tones and can help you get whatever effect you are going for.

Five skeins of neon yarn on a light wooden table: purple, pink, magenta, green, and blue from left to right. A speckled black skein sit above them.
Black and white version of the photo above with five skeins of yarn lined up with a sixth, smaller skein above them. The five skeins of yarn are in order of dark, medium, dark, light, dark

I wanted contrast in my stripes, so I chose this order. If I had wanted more of a gradient, even with the bright colors, I could’ve rearranged the first group to pull the lightest out of the center and place it to the end.